Happy Holidays from AUSTRALIA!

Greetings from sunny Melbourne!

It’s been pretty slow over here on the blog lately, and that’s because graduate school is just about the most time-consuming thing I’ve ever done. But I left New York City about a week ago and have been turning in my final papers and projects from Melbourne, and even though it’s been a mild winter in the Northeastern US so far, I am thankful for this revisit to summer!

After turning in my FINAL final paper yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t put together one of my bi annual slideshows since last January. It turns out, cramming a year’s worth of photos into the confines of one song is pretty tricky – especially when your computer is on its dying leg – but here’s what I came up with after a couple hours of battling Windows Movie Maker. Note to self: don’t wait a whole year next time you want to put one of these together.

Compared to my last few years of seasonal living, this year has been pretty tame. I celebrated the new year in one of my favorite places on the planet – Colorado, before driving my car across the country so that it could live at my parents house in Florida while I made the move to New York City for graduate school in late January. I stayed in New York – working and studying – for most of the year, but did make a bit of time for a snowy spring break in Colorado and a quick two-week road trip around the South Island of New Zealand – which was definitely the highlight of my year! I was able to return home to Florida for a very happy Thanksgiving holiday this past November, and will be celebrating the coming new year here in Australia!

I’ll be writing more about what I’ve been up to in this southern city when I return to New York, but first I’m headed back to New Zealand for my first backpacking trip in the southern hemisphere on the Abel Tasman Coast Track! After a full year of city living, I am dying to get some fresh air and am so psyched to wipe the dust off my old camping gear and put it back to good use.

Then, unfortunately, this very short winter break of mine will be over, and it will be back to school I go for the last semester of my master’s program. While this has definitely been a supremely challenging experience, it’s also been incredibly rewarding and I am so excited to finally have a classroom of my own. I will hopefully be done with my program by July, at which time I will be making some very exciting decisions about where to go next!

This blog will probably stay quiet over the next few weeks, but if you’d like to keep up with my travels in Melbourne, New Zealand, and back in New York City in real-time, make sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

Hi Merissa! I’m studying education, getting ready to make the official career change from park ranger to teacher! I made plenty of money to live and travel comfortably when I was working for the NPS, but I didn’t have the foresight to save much for grad school – so that’s a bummer, as I’m operating 100% on financial aid right now. The travel I’ve been able to do during grad school has been funded by my very last bit of savings from my NPS days and subsidized by my very generous boyfriend, who has a good job and lives in Australia – so dropping the cash is the only way he gets to see me 😉

Meet Mariana

American expat in Australia. Former Park Ranger. Blogger, traveler, and educator - when I'm not teaching primary school in Marvelous Melbourne, I'm off exploring this beautiful planet and documenting my adventures at marianaonthemove.com.